My decision to give away ownership of Hobby Lobby: I chose God. I don’t want government telling me how to live my faith or what to do. In the first few days after I heard the heartbreaking news, my wife and I drove to Washington, D.C. in a rental car, and I held my wife’s hand as we approached the Supreme Court. I couldn’t say for the life of me why I didn’t just turn around. I could turn around every time I go into a church, but not when I go into the White House. I told President Obama the day he announced the ruling. He didn’t ask me about it. I told my family and my friends. I felt that I had an obligation to tell everyone. It was my responsibility to inform them of what had been done to overturn the First Amendment.
But then later.
A few days later, after we had driven the short distance to D.C. and walked around the White House, I found that the reason I didn’t turn around was that I was so overwhelmed by seeing what had happened to our country, our Constitution, our First Amendment that I couldn’t do it. I was so sad and so ashamed and I couldn’t turn around. I didn’t feel like it was my job anymore to make a public statement. I couldn’t tell them in person because I would have been asking too much of the Lord and my country. I didn’t have the stomach to do it any longer. So, I just hung out at the White House all day, all night, so I could cry before I went to bed.
I told President Obama the day he announced the ruling. He didn’t ask me about it. I told my family and my friends. I felt that I had an obligation to tell everyone. It was my responsibility to inform them of what had been done to overturn the First Amendment.
But then later – this is hard for me to talk about, but it happened – I went to the White House to pick up my wife and two-year-old daughter. It was a Friday, and the White House is closed to the public on Fridays. We weren’t allowed in the White House that day. He came and left early